Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has said he met with Ellen Lord, top acquisition chief at the Defense Department; and Lt. Gen. Charles Hooper, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency; to determine ways on how to accelerate the foreign military sales process, Defense News reported Friday.Shanahan told reporters in a Dec. 21 interview that DoD considers the Middle East, Japan and South Korea as the three focus areas to expedite the FMS process.
Lord, meanwhile, introduced six pilot Procurement Action Lead Time programs in an effort to award a contract within 210 days of the solicitation’s release.
Tom Crosson, a spokesman for DSCA, wrote in an email that Hooper aims to expand partnerships with industry in 2018.
“The agency is now coordinating with industry partners to conduct more in-depth briefings to allow the director to better understand the partner’s short-term objectives, long range strategies and how these are related to DSCA’s role in building partner capacity,†Crosson noted.
